This was still the era of “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” A turning point had come in 1874, with the Manhattan case of nine-year-old Mary Ellen. For years, she had been sadistically beaten by a guardian. A local missionary wanted to help, but there was no government office tasked with preventing child abuse. So the missionary turned to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whose founder helped bring Mary Ellen’s case before the state supreme court.
